London, Feb 10 : Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens will be required to give evidence into the ongoing death inquest of Princess Diana, justifying the "contradictory evidence" over whether Henri Paul was drunk at the wheel in the 1997 Paris car crash that killed the princess, her lover Dodi Al Fayed and Paul himself.

According to reports, Lord Stevens will be grilled about a meeting he held with Paul's parents in Paris in November 2006, five weeks before his official report was published.

Jean and Giselle Paul have continuously claimed that Lord Stevens told them their son had not been drunk, and that they were hence puzzled when the Operation Paget report clearly stated that he had been very much over the drink-drive limit.

Sources close to Lord Stevens say that he was simply being "considerate", "sensitive" and "reasssuring" in his treatment of a grieving, elderly couple, reports the Telegraph.

The ex-commissioner had sought to underplay claims made in the immediate aftermath of the crash that Paul had been as "drunk as a pig".